Box Score
Sure, a shutout would have been nice. But in reality it mattered little that Mid-America Christian scored with almost no time left on the clock in Monday night's Sooner Athletic Conference Tournament semifinal at Hilliard Field.
It didn't matter because Wayland had already scored four goals.
With Ricardo Ramos, Alex Castillo, Federico Ucar and Raheem Fleming doing the scoring, the 23rd-ranked Pioneers made off with a 4-1 victory over the Evangels, sending Wayland into the conference tournament championship match back at Hilliard for the second straight year.
A time for Thursday's title tilt between the top-seeded Pioneers (16-2-1) and second-seeded Eagles (16-4), a 2-0 winner over John Brown on Monday in Bethany, Okla., will be finalized Tuesday.
Thursday's game will be a rematch of last year's tournament semifinal which saw the Pioneers and Eagles tie 2-2 before Wayland advanced on penalty kicks, 5-4. WBU went on to defeat USAO in the finals, 6-0, to earn its first-ever conference tournament title and berth in the NAIA National Championships.
Wayland defeated Southwestern Christian, ranked the equivalent of 28th in the NAIA, by a 3-1 count when the teams met in Plainview on Oct. 17. The Eagles still held the inside track for the No. 1 seed before losing on the road to Bacone, 2-1 in overtime, in the next-to-last regular-season match.
The Eagles avenged that loss with a convincing 4-0 home win in the first round of the conference tournament.
Against fifth-seeded Mid-America Christian (12-5-2) – which advanced out of the first round after tying fourth-seeded USAO, 1-1, but winning on PKs, 4-2 – Wayland picked up its first goal just 4 minutes, 29 seconds in when Ramos connected on a free kick from 35 yards. Ramos put his 10th goal of the season into the upper right corner with a tremendous blast.
Castillo made it 2-0 just before the 35th minute when he scored from close range after a rebound.
Wayland took a commanding 3-0 lead when Ucar headed in a pass from Lochlan Reus in the 63rd minute, then Fleming, not long after subbing into the game, sealed it in the 75th minute with a goal off his chest following a long cross from Luis Almeida.
It appeared the 4-0 score would mirror the final from the teams' first meeting in the conference opener back on Sept. 26 in Plainview, but the Evangels picked up a last-second – literally – goal.
WBU keeper Ziggy Camejo, who recorded four saves, was denied a save when MACU's Andres Ochoa broke free and scored on a pass from Brad Bennions just before the final horn sounded.
Ten of Wayland's 14 shots were on-goal. All three of Ucar's efforts were on-target, while two of Reus' three were on-goal, as were both of Ramos'.
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